A Day of Messes

I finally figured out how to get that template off of our blog. I am happy!

We had a day of messes yesterday. Grace had two accidents (wet) in our house yesterday and one included on our couch! This is a first and a first of accidents since the first week we started potty training. I was a bit discouraged when she did it a second time on the kitchen floor and walked in it!:) So back to the grind today and she is right back on track.

Also, all of the snow has left our yard a big mess this year. The snow finally melted yesterday in what seems like over a week and then the ground turns to mud. Needless to say, after carrying Allie (our Pomeranian) out, her paws are very muddy. We have to bring her in and take her straight to the tub to wash her paws off so she doesn't track in the house. Today, we have another 2 inches of snow that came in over the morning hours so we are back to snow covered grounds. It seems like since the day after Thanksgiving we have had snow on the ground about constantly.

I think we are all ready for some warm weather!! It won't be long..

Here are some random pics. She is looking at her new boots in one of the pics. She is proud!:) I got these and a lot of other stuff at my favorite consignment shop (Buttons, Bows, and Britches) the other day. I got the best deals that day! I got like 7 pairs of shoes~ some for Grace (inc. snow boots for Grace) and others for our nephew, and neice to be:), and socks, Old Navy pair of p.j.'s (with tags still on them), safety first item (in the package), a Dumbo stuffed doll for Grace, etc. for 19 dollars for all of that!! They all look about brand new too if not new with some great name brands too! Love me some deals!!!

Ugh... Blogger

The template on our blogger got messed up a while back and I can't figure out how to get the blogger template off and just have the cutest blog on the block background. It is like it meshes all these things together now and I can't figure out how to get the old stuff off. Also, when I upload images the code only pops up (in words) on blogger so I can't see the pics on the blog till I publish or preview them after uploading. I get tired of messing with it so if any of you know what we did and how to change that.. I welcome your advice:)

Puzzles and Fun..

I took Grace to Puzzles Fun Dome last Friday for some 'out of the house' fun. We just love this place. It has bouncies, a preschool play area, arcade, art area, a little theater, mini golf, and a bowling alley (if you want to pay extra for the mini golf, bowling, and arcade). I was amazed at how brave Grace has become because she didn't hesitant to climb the mountain of a slide and go down it. It is huge!! Thankfully, it wasn't very crowded either and I noticed some adults getting in the bouncies and going down the slide. I asked the guy if it was okay if I got in because Grace was asking me to bounce with her:). He said "sure!" so that is just what I did. I even climbed the big slide and went down twice behind her. She just LOVED me getting in on the action and it WAS fun! She played an arcade game (where she tried to race a car) and colored a picture before we left in the art area. She even brought some pages home with her to color and I am including a pic of her sponge bob that she colored. Look closely because she colored his legs, arms, and all of the details you see all by herself.. in the lines!! I am amazed at how she can concentrate on an area and color so well. I will have to post some of her drawings too on here some time, where she is drawing real pictures!!

She was good and tired when we left and it was loads of fun for the both of us:)

Wednesday night activities have started up in high gear and Grace is back in Honeybees, I am doing the Mom 2 Mom again this semester and of course, choir practice. We just LOVE Wednesdays! Adam is in full swing with school. He is unable to help with Awana this semester since he is taking 3 classes this semester and working full-time. They are split in terms and he is doing well with all of it so far!

Around the House..

Since Christmas, I have spent a good bit of time just catching up around the house, with work in between. We have had two couples from our church have babies lately and we are providing meals for them. I will take the 2nd meal tomorrow. Also, our DEAR friends the Frasure's have been going through some tough times right now. They discovered right before Christmas that their 2 month old baby had hydrocephalus and required surgery. They were visiting family in GA at the time and had to come back here to Kosair's hospital for her to have the brain surgery to have the shunt put in to drain the fluid off of her brain. I know it was very scary for them. Praise God the surgery went well but they have to keep a close watch on her and are having to keep her away due to her risk of infection after surgery. I was able to go see Evie in the hospital after surgery and she was doing well. Resting pretty well because they had her on pain meds. Still praying for them daily as they learn to care for her, etc.

Also, still praying for my step-sister Tracey who will have her LAST radiation treatment tomorrow and possibly no more chemo unless the oncologist decides to do more before or after surgery. The cat scan is in 4 weeks and surgery 2 weeks after that.

I also found out that my Dad's cousin Charles, died Sunday night. He was like a best friend to my Dad and was there so much for my Dad when he was sick. He spent a lot of time at our house. I am SOO glad we got to see him when we came to AL and talk with him about salvation. I pray that the Lord will use this to further His kingdom! Very sad though to lose such a soft spoken, and friendly man! He had been through so much though.. renal failure, etc. etc.

There are many other requests out there and I know a lot of people are dealing with all kinds of things.. Please remember these..

Besides this we've had some great quality time around the house. I am going to post a pic of a video of Grace singing and dancing with her Dora microphone (that she just loves)!

It has also been very cold and snowy lately. It snowed again today and is tonight. We did take time to play in it a little bit. We made snow angels, threw snow balls, and Grace helped her Daddy shovel the road:)

My Darlings~:)

Potty SUCCESS!!!

In the past week in a half or so we have stayed around the house a good bit. We got right on potty training again. We had tried potty training with her a couple of times before but Grace was just NOT interested or just didn't get it and was resistant to it. (Didn't even want to SIT on the potty--she would cry to not have to..). I first tried to put her in panties and then a pull-up on top and this didn't work for her. She didn't like the wet feeling of the panties against her skin but it didn't stop her. So I decided to go straight to bare bottom. After wetting the floor only once she decided real fast that she did NOT like it! So I continued to let her go around the house bare bottom with a gown or shirt on and it was a constant reminder that if she had to "go" she HAD to sit on the potty. We remind her a lot that if she has to go she has to use the potty because she will wet or get the floor dirty:). IT HAS WORKED!!!! We are SOOO proud of her! It was obvious that she was absolutely ready this time! With in a week she was having NO accidents except while sleeping. Besides that the only accidents was when I was real busy and unable to consistently remind her or when she had a pull-up on (during the first week). She can wear panties now all the time when she isn't sleeping and even told us when she needed to go while out at a restaurant after church on Sunday and went, and didn't wet her self the whole time we were out last night. She is all business and this has included poops!

Her reward system has been either a m&m, piece of chocolate, marshmallow, etc. AND she had a poster that she got to put a sticker on each time she used the potty. She got a certificate when she completed it:) and now she started a new Elmo calendar that came in her Elmo potty coloring book. We let her put a sticker wherever she wants when she uses the potty. Such a big girl!!

Christmas Day in KY 2010

As you all know we were back in KY for Christmas and had a great relaxing Christmas with just the three of us. On Christmas Eve I made some Christmas goodies to snack.. sausage balls, cheese dip and chips, corn dip with chips, baked ham and rolls. We went to the Christmas Eve service at our church that evening which I just LOVE! I love pausing on Christmas Eve to actually reflect on what Christmas is all about! We came home and Grace and I made Jesus a chocolate birthday cake that we had planned on having on Christmas Day. We are going to try to make this a tradition and make Jesus a B'day cake every year for Christmas and sing to him.. to take our minds back to this very special day in history and what it means for us in the future!

Later, I took our big dog on a long walk in our neighborhood to give him some exercise before the snow came and it was so peaceful and a great time of reflection for me on Christmas. Then the snow came and we had a white Christmas.. not a lot just enough to be white:)

Christmas morning, we told Grace that Santa had come and she was so happy. I think she was a bit overwhelmed at first by every thing AND she had just woke up.. so she was a little slow processing:). She had a blast all day playing with her new toys, etc. and crashed at bedtime that night. We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and shared chocolate cake together. Yum! It was a pretty lazy day and ate leftover goodies and watched a Christmas movie.

I am going to share some pics and videos from our day.. as you will see in one of the videos.. Grace had asked for a "brown" baby:) Is that not the sweetest and cutest thing!! We gave her a name now though=)








Here is our white Christmas:)


Santa has made his visit=)






Lets just say I won't be going into cake decorating any time soon! Ha!



Playing with her new play-do and cookie cutters

Christmas in AL 2010

Well, in 2 hours it will officially be Christmas day! We were blessed to get to spend Christmas with our family for a long weekend last weekend. We actually like going home early and then be at our house on Christmas. It makes for a very relaxing Christmas with just the 3 of us. More on Christmas in Kentucky later.

We left for AL last Wednesday night (a day early) because of the ice that was coming to Louisville. Due to work schedules it was about midnight or so before we left (early Thurs.) Once we got about an hour out of Louisville all was good. Grace did great going to and from Louisville. She had only one real moment that she started to get fussy going to and from and then fell asleep.

We got to Nana and Paw Paw's (my mom and step-Dad's) on Thurs. We decided to stay with them the first 2 nights and Adam's parents the last 3 nights. Emily (Grace's cousin by marriage) was there for those two days so we all took advantage of spending time with Emily! Friday, we went shopping and had a meal at Mom's with some of the family and even opened some presents. Saturday, we went to spend time with Adam's family. We went to Carey's (my sister-in-law's) and spent some time with cousin Vann, Kyle, Brandon, and Granny and Papa. Later we ate!!:)

That night, we went and saw our dear, long time friends, Eric and Shea and their brand new baby Naomie. This was our first time to see Naomie she was just a month old. She was the BEST baby. Just precious!! It was great to see all of them too!

Sunday, we went to the much anticipated visit to the Church at Brookhills-- David Platt's church in Birmingham. It was awesome!! I just love his preaching/ teaching style and his passion, and heart for The Word, and for our mission. A great Christmas message! We followed our friends Jason and Maria Ellen and their kids to that church.

After that we went to my Grandma's to see my brother Greg and his fiance, Kelly who came from GA. We went to lunch at the Cracker Barrel and then spent some quality time with them and some other of my family that afternoon. It was good to see them!

Late that night we ended up being invited over to some friends house, The East's house to hang out with some old and new friends for a soup dinner. We left Grace at Granny's house to spend time with her while we went. It was late too.

Monday, ended up being a day of more of Adam's family. A hospital visit to see my step-sister Tracey.. who ended up back in the hospital the last 2 days of our stay, and to see my cousin Charles. I was so glad Adam and I went because Adam and I also shared Christ with my cousin Charles.

Later, we all went to Noccalulla Falls that is in my home town.. A beautiful park, Falls, and campground. They put on a FABULOUS light display every year and it has been YEARS since we have went to it. Let me just say.. it is GREAT! We were able to ride the train through the park and see the lights and then they even had Santa there in one of the cabins.. and Grace got to sit on his lap and tell him what she wants and we even got her picture with him at NO extra charge. She was such a TROOPER! Didn't cry one bit and was SOOO proud of her self for sitting on his lap! She just LOVED all of this. She smiled the whole time. She LOVED the train, the lights, and Santa. We are going to have to make that a yearly occasion!

I know this is a lot. I am posting a slide show because it is so much. At the end of this slideshow I believe it will go into an old slideshow so you can just stop then. It may already be at old pics/ videos when you scroll done so just bring the arrow down to the right bottom corner and you may have to arrow back for the pics. I didn't get it in a separate one. Merry Christmas every one!!!

Performing Grace:)

Here is a couple of videos for your enjoyment. The first she is quoting scripture verses the other, singing. Don't mind the outfit or the "do" in the 2nd video. We had just got in from playing out in the snow and we had dressed in layers and that was her bottom layer..:)

More on the snow later.. we are going to leave for AL tonight and travel during the night due to the bad weather that is coming. We are suppose to get snow tonight and 1/4 to 1/2 inch of ice on top of that by the morning so we don't won't to get stuck on our road. Because of that, we had a change of plans.. we'll see how traveling with Grace in the middle of the night goes..:) She is SUPER excited about it right now! I am working for a few hours soon and we will leave late tonight. Lots to do..More later~

I Dare You to Pray This..

This is a video that I saw on another friend's blog.. Very convicting so I had to share~

Fun in Dec. 2010

We have stayed pretty busy lately but also had some fun too!:) Last Thursday we watched our neighbor's boys while she had to work for a few hours. Of course, Grace was ecstatic when she found out Andrew and Mattie were coming over to play for a while at our house! The boys got a kick out of 'beating up' on Adam!=) They all played hard for the 2 1/2 hours they were here.

That Thursday night I went to my work Christmas party/ retirement party for a fellow employee. It was so much fun! We packed out a room at Rafferty's and had so much fun just laughing and hanging out outside of work.

Grace and I have also been spending a lot of time with Holly F. and baby Evie lately. They ended up going shopping with us again on Friday and we went to lunch. I am LOVING that she is HOME now that she had Evie!! Then on Sunday we ended up including our hubbys and ate Mexican together after church.

This week I have been busier trying to finish up Christmas shopping, Christmas cards (that I am still working on..=) and wrapping gifts, house chores, taking care of the dogs yearly check-ups, baths, before Bud is boarded at Christmas and Allie goes to AL, etc. It 'hit' me that we leave ONE week from today to go to AL so we need to have our Christmas done early. Thankfully, the Frasure's are also going to watch Grace tomorrow night while Adam and I finish up Grace's Christmas and Adam and I get a date night out of it too. Which is much overdue!!=)

Last Friday, Adam went over to rake leaves at one of our neighbors house as a service project to serve her. I went out and helped Adam get it done before it got dark on Friday and to get the bags all picked up on Sunday. Then yesterday Ms. Shirley knocks on our door and has a gift that she made for us. I was so upset that she felt like she needed to give us a gift. We wanted to do it for FREE just to serve her but she went to the trouble to make the most special gift for us. It was ornaments with each of our names on them. They are SO pretty. We just LOVE them. Of course, we had to accept them but now I am trying to figure out what I can do for her to give back to her=) You can see the pic below..

Adam is trying to wrap up this Semester of school BEFORE we go home. He also taught the adult Bible Study last night at our church. So he has definitely been busy with work and all of that. Adam will be working 9 days in a row before we go home in order to have 5 days off for our trip to AL. So he is going to be BEAT!:/ He decided to do it that way since he only has 1 day of time right now. He is swapping other days so that makes him work so many in a row. We are super excited about having some time off together though, as a family!!

I have also been spending time practicing with the Choir at Fegenbush for the Christmas Celebration. Our choir is joining them and the East Choir for The Highview Family Christmas that will be THIS Sunday. I just LOVE singing with them and it is gonna be so great on Sunday. Grace also enjoys going to "big" church to play with the "new" kids and toys on our practice days.

In all, getting ready for the Christmas Celebration has continued to remind me the reason for the season. I just love how it brings my heart back to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords that should have been treated as majesty but instead came to be born in a barn and live a humble life to ultimately be killed for MY sins! Thankfully, he is now seating at the right hand of God in Heaven and because of that he lives in ME! Praise the Lord for what an AMAZING gift!! No gift gets any better than THAT!!

Pics from the week..

Thanksgiving Weekend 2010

We spent Thanksgiving this year with just the three of us. It was a good day. I cooked southern cornbread chicken and dressing with gravy, apple-glazed pork tenderloin (that was yummy--we didn't do turkey), tater tot casserole, fried okra, black-eyed peas, cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, and a oreo cake. Every thing was great except the oreo cake.. the icing was a bit too rich. Don't recommend the recipe I had for that one..:) Grace even helped with the cooking and it was a VERY special time for both of us! It was also a relaxing day with the exception of Adam having to work every night through Thanksgiving.

On Friday, Holly F. and I (with our girls) went Black Friday SHOPPING!! It was fun. We didn't get up super early, just when Grace got up we left. I got some really great deals for Christmas that I was very happy with.

On Saturday, we all put up the Christmas tree. Grace really got excited and actually helped this year, with the decorating. She just LOVED it! I let her put ornaments on the tree and of course they were all going in one spot :) So I was reminding her we have to move around the tree. You will see in the pics:) We listened to Christmas music and had great family time.

On Sunday, me, Adam, and Grace went out to eat with the Frasures and the Dunn's for lunch. We went to our favorite Chinese restaurant in the Jefferson Mall Food Court. We walked around together as Adam was looking for a pair of sunglasses. (FYI- he got contacts so he needed non-prescription sunglasses). This was fun as the guys goofed on trying on different crazy sunglasses! We just love these two families!

It was a great Thanksgiving weekend!








Grace's ornaments all group together:)